Gordon Ramsay Hates The Wagyu Beef Trend For One Specific Reason
If you can look past the considerable price tag, you'll find that there are reasons why certain fancy foods became such in-demand ingredients. For example, truffles are an expensive variety of fungi that develop complex, earthy flavors during their underground lifecycle. On a chemical level, truffles recreate mammalian mating musk, making them irresistible to many diners. As such, the rare fungus' hefty price tag can be worth it.
But the popularity of luxury ingredients can often draw cheap imitators. The aforementioned truffle has fallen victim to this exact phenomenon. Martha Stewart can't stand truffle oil, which she describes as a poor synthetic substitute for the actual fungus. The late Anthony Bourdain shares this opinion, per Eater, as does Gordon Ramsay.
A perfectly seared and expertly seasoned steak has long been associated with decadent dining experiences, but that hasn't stopped cooks from looking for the fanciest beef available. Much like the surge in truffle oil's popularity, Ramsay is perturbed by the contemporary Wagyu beef trend, as he finds that many chefs are careless with the choice cut.
Gordon Ramsay's aversion to faux fancy foods
Generally speaking, Gordon Ramsay doesn't dare eat anything that he feels is a fancy food trend. He would rather dig into a simple bowl of shrimp and grits than delicately ladle a gastronomic foam. In a similar vein, Ramsay vented to PopSugar his frustration over the fact that seemingly every restaurant has added a Wagyu steak to its menu. He doesn't have an issue with this particular type of beef in and of itself. In fact, at one point, you could enjoy wagyu meatballs at Ramsay's Heddon Street Restaurant. His issue with Wagyu's ubiquity in the culinary sphere centers around how chefs treat luxury beef. Wagyu needs to be aged for its flavors to fully develop, and Ramsay feels that many cooks fail to properly preserve their Wagyu.
Wagyu beef is cut from Japanese Wagyu cattle, which were bred to have a higher concentration of fat cells within their muscles. Wagyu has deep marbling, or striations of white fat deposits, which makes eating the luxury beef when it has been handled properly a flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth experience.
Ramsay's war on Wagyu wasters
Though he is often associated with strict culinary standards, Ramsay isn't a steak snob. In a recent response duet, he revealed that he loved a TikToker's steak, stunning fans. However, Ramsay absolutely does not love it when someone cooks a quality cut of steak in a manner that the chef deems disrespectful.
One of the worst Wagyu offenders, at least in Ramsay's eyes, is a TikToker that goes by the handle @realguga. On his official @gordonramsay official TikTok, Ramsay stitched a vitriolic response to @realguga's deep-fried Wagyu tomahawk steak video, calling the creator's chosen method of cooking criminal. The metaphorical and literal beef between the two chefs didn't end there. In a culinary experiment that makes the decision to deep fry steak seem almost boring by comparison, @realguga coated a beautifully marbled Wagyu beef slab with a thick layer of Nutella, which prompted Ramsay to call the unconventional creator an, "...idiot Nutella sandwich," in the caption of his duet.